Weekend Fun

Cooper had a busy and fun weekend!  It started with our college friends coming into Houston for a visit.  I can't believe it's been 10 years since we've graduated from college.  I'm so thankful for their friendship over the years!  All 4 families were able to get together Friday for dinner and the kids were able to play together.  The Dubecks added another baby to the mix so that totals 8 kiddos!

Kids taking turns pushing and pulling each other in the wagon

Big kids getting a cool thumbs up

They were all very cute playing together.  Too bad I didn't get any pictures of the other kiddos…or the adults!  Cooper had fun even if he was a bit cranky and tired that evening.

Then Saturday Justin had the day off and we had a fun family day.  We first went to brunch at our favorite play close to our house.

We then went to the park to play.  Cooper is getting so much more independent and can go down all the slides by himself.  We are still working on him going up and down stairs by himself.  He seems to have no fear so I have to watch him.  He also just loves walking around everywhere and exploring.

Playing with a new toy

Justin had to work on Sunday so after church and Cooper's nap we went to my parents house to hang out.  He knows exactly where he is when he goes to my parents and goes to his usual "spots" to play and explore.  My dad plays with him a lot and they have become best buds.  My dad had to leave to go to a meeting and when he left Cooper followed him to the door and cried.  It was so sweet.  I'm thankful for my parents who are such good grandparents!  It's also nice to have a break at times when you're a SAHM :)

Then Sunday evening something crazy happen.  I'm talking epic.  For those who read my blog or know me, you know how big this actually is.  Here is a picture

That's right folks, Cooper finally drank out of a sippy cup.  I'm talking really drank out of it, not just a sip here and there.  And wouldn't you know, it's the cheapest cup out there!  I've tried at least 12 different types of cups and he wouldn't take any of them.  He's been off bottles for a month now and still wouldn't drink from a sippy cup or straw cup until now.  Then it happened again the next morning…

Hallelujah!  He still doesn't take it ALL the time, but this is progress for sure. For example, this morning when I put it on his tray, he got very upset and didn't even want it on his tray.  Then after he finished eating I offered it to him again and he took it.  He is an interesting boy, I tell ya.  He also drank out of a straw today for the first time!  What is going on here?!?!  You know,  some people told me that their child didn't drink from a sippy cup until they were 18 months old and not to worry about it and I wish I would have listened.  I really did stress over this a lot and I should have just chilled out a little.  I'm glad I did get him off bottles though.  So here's to hoping he will keep this up and not refuse to drink out of it again, but we are on day 3 now and things are still looking good.

Overall, I would say this was a pretty good weekend!

Colorado Family Vacation

We just got back from a wonderful family vacation to Beaver Creek Colorado.  My brother won the trip through his work and he graciously chose to take our whole family along.  It really was a dream vacation, staying at a ski in/ski out resort where everyone treats your like royalty.  The weather was absolutely perfect...sunny days, not too cold and beautiful!  It was also Cooper's very first time on a plane.  I was a little nervous going into it because I didn't think Cooper could sit still in our laps for that long, but he did so well!  Our first flight was to Dallas and he slept the whole time.

Our 2nd flight was the longer flight and he was super fussy until we finally took off and then he fell asleep again.  Phew!  We finally made it to our resort and were able to take in the beautiful view of the mountains from our room.

That evening we went to dinner in the hotel and tried to get to bed early since we were getting up early the next morning for skiing!  My parents were so nice to watch Cooper so Justin and I could go skiing together.  We started out the first morning taking a private lesson together since it had been awhile since I've skied.  Justin definitely did not need a lesson but he was sweet to take it with me.  

The greens were a lot harder greens than what I was used to, so it took me awhile to get back into it again but it was still a lot of fun being out in the snow!

We met my brother and nephew up for lunch as they also took a lesson.  They had lots of little restaurants and shops and an ice skating rink at the bottom of the slopes where you can walk around for a break.  

Justin skiied the rest of the afternoon while the rest of us went back to the hotel.  Cooper did not sleep well the night before so he was pretty fussy and tired off and on that day.  Though he was tired that day, he sure LOVED playing with his cousin!  Cooper loves playing with other kids and he is constantly hugging Peyton.  It's so cute to see them playing together and Peyton was such a good big cousin to Cooper.

That evening we had reservations to go on a sleigh ride to the top of a mountain to eat at a nice restaurant.  It was so fun...and cold!  The ride up the mountain was beautiful looking at our resort and the city at night.

The restaurant was beautiful and the food was A-mazing!  It was a very fun experience.  After dinner we rode the sleigh back down the mountain and then sat outside by the fire roasting marshmallows.

The next day Justin and I went for day 2 of skiing by ourselves.  I knew this would by my last day skiing as I wanted to spend time with Cooper the next day and give my parents a break.  We skiied out of our hotel and skiied across to the main Beaver Creek area.  It was fun skiing together (even though I may or may not have had a small panic attack at the very end of the run where there was an extremely steep drop off..ugh, this was not a GREEN folks) (I did survive and made it down thanks to my patient hubby).  All in all, it was a fun and beautiful day of skiing!

After skiing we met the rest of my family for lunch.  These Texans may have gone a little crazy bundling up the 14 month old....this was his position in the stroller, poor baby couldn't move his arms!

 It reminded me of The Christmas Story when the mom was getting her son ready to walk to school and he couldn't move his arms.  I think it was clear to everyone around us that we are the Texans...people were even pointing and laughing at sweet Cooper all bundled up.  I'm not sure if the laughing was due to his absolute cuteness or to our absolute craziness.

The next day Justin decided to take advantage of skiing one last day and I stayed with Cooper to take him to play in the snow.  It wasn't quite what I imagined it being in my head of Cooper playing in his first snow as he really didn't want me to put him down, but hey we still got some cute pictures of him in the snow!

The weather was so great that we even got hot in all our layers.  We really didn't even need a jacket with the sun out.  On the last night, we had reservations to go to a nice dinner at the resort.  We wanted to get some good family pictures in too since the hotel was decorated so beautifully for Christmas.

We decided it would be more relaxing for everyone for my family to eat first at 6 and then Justin and I would put Cooper to bed and then we ate just the 2 of use after my family came back.  It was perfect since Cooper is pretty unpredictable at meal time and we were able to have a nice date night.  After having a nice dinner, we went outside to sit by the fire for awhile and then came in and sat in the hotel lobby.  I enjoyed a chocolate martini, which reminded me of our honeymoon when I had one almost every evening.  It was a very nice evening!

And then before we knew it, after 5 days and 4 wonderful nights, our vacation was over and we were on our way back to Houston.  It was such a fun family vacation and I am thankful for my brother who worked hard to win this trip and to take us with him!  We were very blessed :)

Girls Weekend and Pumpkin Patch Fun

This past weekend was super fun!  It started with a much needed girls weekend away with my 2 best friends Karrie and Staci.  We have been best friends since high school and it was so fun to spend time with them as we are all married now and one lives out of state.  We went to Brenham since it was close by and stayed in a nice Bed and Breakfast.  Here we are on the road fighting Houston traffic on Friday...

We then went to a nice dinner on Friday night.  It was actually the same restaurant we went to 4 years ago when we stay in a different B&B there!

We then went back to our B&B, enjoyed some wine that came with the room and talked for hours about old times and reminisced of all the memories we have made together over the past almost 15 years!

Then on Saturday we of course enjoyed a very nice Breakfast in our room...pumpkin pancakes with some type of fancy egg that I can't really remember what, but it was yummy!

Then we did what all girls do together when there are no boys.....pedicures and shopping!

We went to a flea market, walked all around the town, ate a nice lunch, ate some ice cream, and then we went to see a movie.  It was all nice, fun and very relaxing!  Definitely a change of what I normally do as a SAHM.  I'm so thankful for these girls and the lifelong friendship we have.  We have been through  A LOT together over the many years and it is pretty amazing to see where the Lord has brought us over the years.

It was the perfect amount of time to be away as I missed Cooper SO much, but it wasn't too much time away from him.  This was my first time to ever be away from him overnight and I really did miss him a lot.  I knew he was in great hands as Justin was taking care of him all weekend long and he loves his daddy!   Justin also sent me pictures throughout the day of what they were doing, which helped.   When I came home, he looked so much bigger and older!  I know I was only away 2 days, but I couldn't believe how much older he looked to me.  After seeing him everyday for a year, I guess missing a day makes you forget.  It does make me more thankful to be able to stay home with him and how much I love being with him everyday!

After I got home on Sunday, we decided to go to a pumpkin patch close to our house since it was the last day it was open.  Though Cooper is still a little young to do some of the fun things there, we had a blast!

There were tons of pumpkins, blow up rides, train ride, hay ride, and fun carnival food!

Cooper loved looking around and taking everything in.  He especially enjoyed the hay ride and train ride!

It really was a perfect weekend!  I am so blessed to have such a great friends and a wonderful family to spend the weekend with.

Wimberley Vacay

This past weekend we went on a mini vacation with 3 other couples plus our kids to Wimberley.  We called it our 10 year college reunion trip with our friends from A&M.  8 adults and 7 kids under 6 years old was a blast!  We rented a beautiful home through VRBO and it really was perfect for our group.  The view was amazing!

This was the view from the back porch that had plenty of rocking chairs where we could relax and enjoy our morning coffee taking in the view.

It also had an awesome pool where the water felt great and not like bath water.  There was a baby pool too which was perfect for the little ones.

The house also had an awesome game room with ping pong, shuffle board, air hockey, foosball, etc, plus a theatre room!  The adults enjoyed it, but it would be really fun when the kids are older to enjoy it as well.

But really, the best part about the trip was spending time with lifelong friends.

I love these girls.  I have spent many, many hours with these girls especially in college, laughing, talking and praying together.  No matter how much time goes by, we can just pick up where we left off and that is always a friendship you can't take for granted.  It really was so great spending time with them and watching all our kids play together.

I know I'm biased, but are these not the cutest bunch of kids you have ever seen?  I love this picture and really couldn't believe I got them all looking at the camera!  Well, of course that is thanks for the other 3 people acting crazy to get them all to look at them.  Next time we will plan it better and have them all in Aggie shirts and probably not on a bright orange couch :)

Cooper was so cute that weekend.  Poor baby is too young to play with the big kids and while they were running around the house playing cops and robbers, Cooper would be chasing after them as fast as he can go with his army crawl.  It was so sweet how much he wanted to be with them.  I really can't wait until he walks...I feel like he can do so many more things!

The house also has a fire pit perfect for making smores!  The adults had fun while all the kiddos were asleep for the night!

It was so nice that the little kids could nap and go to bed early while the adults could enjoy the house and have some much needed R&R.  With the exception of the first night where Cooper cried and cried at night, he slept perfectly the rest of the trip.  That kid, it seems to take him one nap/night sleep to get used to a new environment.

It really was such a great weekend.  All the kids did so well and the adults had fun too!  It does bring me back to our college days when we would stay up until the wee hours of the night "studying", talking, getting java shakes at Sweet Eugenes, and eating ice cream late at night.  I do miss college from time to time, but it is a huge blessing to see the 7 little munchkins that have come since then.  I am so thankful for college friends that I believe will be lifelong friends.